Nearly 45 years of officiating – that’s a lot of time on the volleyball court. During that time, Jerry Aeschlimann has officiated 29 state tournaments. He’s served as R1 for the finals in eight of those tournaments and R2 in another. That’s quite the resume.

 

Born January 31, 1951, in Salem, Oregon, Aeschlimann was a two-sport athlete and one-sport statistician at South Salem High School. He swam the backstroke, played the four and five on the basketball court, and kept stats for the gymnastics squad prior to graduating in 1969.

 

The following year, Aeschlimann began a 25-year volleyball playing career on the club circuit as he joined the USVBA team at University of Oregon. From 1970 until 1995, Aeschlimann played for numerous club teams, including The Evergreen State College, University of Puget Sound, and the Olympia Volleyball Club. A couple highlights of his playing career came in 1981 when his team played and lost in the Evergreen Regional AA Finals, and in both 1984 and 1987 when his teams won the Regional A Finals.

 

Aeschlimann’s love for the sport of volleyball extended beyond playing and led him to begin officiating in 1978. Since that time – nearly 45 years – he has continually worked as a volleyball official, starting initially with the Thurston County Board and the last 32 years with the Tacoma-Pierce County Volleyball Officials Board at both the collegiate and high school level. He was voted Volleyball Official of the Year in 2004.